NEC launches new four-way high-availability fault tolerant server

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, Sept 13, 2004

NEC Solutions (America), Inc., a provider of integrated solutions for the Connected Enterprise in North America, has announced the availability of the NEC Express5800/340Hb, its new four-way high-end fault tolerant server. NEC's new high-availability server delivers up to 99.999% continuous uptime, featuring the highest level of availability in the IT industry from any major enterprise manufacturer.

Designed for server consolidation, data center applications and server virtualization, the NEC Express5800/340Hb is the ultimate platform for running multiple applications from a single server with instantaneous fail-over, advanced monitoring and no single point of failure. The four logical CPU's support multiple operating systems and application stacks in a fully fault tolerant environment without sacrificing application performance. For example:

Server Consolidation--CIO's are constantly battling cost issues within their operating budgets. High on this list is the number of servers, many of which may be underutilized. Consolidation offers excellent opportunities to relieve pressure on the operating budget by addressing the costs of service, administration, and staffing. In the past consolidation on a single server represented a risk, but that risk is eliminated when the server has 99.999% uptime.

Large Data Center Applications--Some applications are so large that a dual processor server can not handle the load. With NEC's four-way offering there is now an answer for this Windows large application market.

Host for Virtual Server--With Microsoft's announcement of their Virtual Server app (VS) NEC can now offer a system that can run multiple operating system application stacks on a single hardware platform.

By requiring only single copies of all standard applications to be installed on the system, the NEC Express5800/340Hb is ideally suited for virtual machine products and is a cost-saving alternative to linking conventional systems into an expensive clustering network. For example, pharmaceutical corporations can utilize high-availability functionality of the Express5800/340Hb to run uninterrupted molecular model tests for the development of new drugs, saving valuable time and resources.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation can have constant access to criminal records, and the National Weather Service can constantly track weather patterns allowing for quicker response times to national disasters. Retail corporations and e-commerce sites can operate round-the-clock with 24/7 access to inventory and sales records, as well as offer 24/7 support for customers, sales staff and partners.

Larry Sheffield, senior vice president of the Solutions Platform Group for NEC Solutions America believes NEC is ahead of the competition by offering the highest levels of availability in the IT industry.

"NEC is providing customers with the industry's most reliable and secure platform for server virtualization and consolidation available today," said Sheffield. "NEC is the only major enterprise manufacturer to offer a four-way high-availability server delivering up to 99.999% continuous availability, averaging less than five minutes of unplanned downtime per year."

The NEC Express5800/340Hb utilizes blade server architecture by separating processing/memory and I/O onto separate modules and features hot-swappable functionality. The highly expandable mid-range server features a 10U rack-optimized form factor that comes standard with 4 Xeon MP 2.8GHz, 2GB memory, 2 x 18GB HDD and Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition.